1. If you want to make money and be taken seriously, buy your own domain and use WordPress. (Article: Domain Names and Hosting)
2. Write about something that you love. If you aren’t passionate about what you’re blogging about, you’re going to get burnt out – and fast!
3. Write at least 4 posts each week, and make sure it’s actual content – not just giveaways or reviews (unless you only do reviews).
4. Do not clutter your sidebar. Keep it as crisp, clean, and light as possible. If you can, pay for a professional design. It is worth the investment, I promise.
5. Organize your categories and pages, and use tags to keep everything organized.
6. Put links to your most popular posts in your sidebar (like I have over at Slap Dash Mom).
7. Have a Contact page and make sure your email address is readily available in case advertisers or other bloggers want to contact you.
8. Have an amazing “About Me” page. (Article: Create an “About Me” Page That People Want to Read)
9. Interact with other bloggers in your niche. Help them out, and they may help you out. Don’t ask for things in return, just help to be helping.
10. Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. While I am addicted to these things (…), I still type properly. As a business or brand, I will overlook bloggers that cannot type to/too, one/won, your/you’re correctly.
11. Put your blog signature in your email. On that note, set up an email at your domain, like Suzy@SuzyHomemaker.com.
12. Create ‘evergreen’ content – content that will be good today, next month, and next year.
13. Write lots of lists. “Top 10″ lists do well.
14. If you’re able to, teach people something. How-Tos, Tutorials, etc all do really well.
15. Comment on other blog posts.
16. Use the rule of thirds for tweeting. 1/3 your posts, 1/3 related content, 1/3 thoughts and interactions.
17. Have a ‘Call to Action’ at the bottom of each blog post. (Article: How to Add a Call to Action)
18. Sign up for Google Analytics and track your progress. Find out what people are searching for and use more of those terms. (Article: How to Check Your Inbound Search Terms)
19. Offer to guest post. Yes, this is a bit of work but you’re getting your name out there – and quality backlinks to your own site. When you guest post, make sure the blogger links back to your site for you. Also be careful about who you guest post for. You don’t want to be associated with any spam-type sites, so choose wisely. (Article: Guest Posting)
20. Content is king. You will hear this repeated all over the web and it is 100% true! (Articles: What’s Left to Blog About?, 26 Blog Post Ideas, 11 Fail-Proof Blog Ideas, The Idea Bank)
Do you have any blog tips you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments or tweet them to me (@sadie_lankford) and I’ll follow and retweet for you!
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Nice list of blogging tips Sadie. We’re a lot alike with the ‘keep it simple’ approach. A nice clean design with easy navigation goes a long way. Thanks for the mention. :)
Brian D. Hawkins recently posted..Unwinding A Mess – Merging Google Plus and YouTube
This isn’t a list of tips it is a full easy to follow blogging blueprint! :-) Excellent post thank you, I think loads of people will benefit from this.
Cheers
Andi
Andi recently posted..Blogging Tips: Why YOU need to be your blog!
Fab article with some excellent tips …. I shall definitely be sharing this within my network!
Thanks
Clair